As voters countrywide head to the polls on Tuesday for the heated midterm elections, a handful of states will also be deciding whether to pass marijuana legislation that would legalize the drug for medicinal or recreational use.

The Canadian government is ready to pardon those with a pot possession record of 30 grams or less after Canada becomes the second and largest country with a legal national marijuana marketplace Wednesday.

A senior government official said those with a record will be allowed to apply for a pardon. The official was not authorized to speak publicly ahead of Wednesday’s announcement and spoke on condition of anonymity.

The legalization of recreational marijuana is only days away in Canada. This grand experiment will draw the attention of the world. While legalization may seem like a small innovation amongst the monumental scale of world history, its effects will, in fact, be sweeping.

Marijuana legalization will be transformative. With this step, Canada is poised to change the world and its standing within it. Here’s how:

Think of the states as dominoes lined up one by one. When the first domino topples, it leads to a chain reaction that causes most, if not all, of the others to fall. That’s what has happened, and continues to happen, with state legalization of marijuana. The timeline for marijuana legalization in the U.S. shows how those dominoes keep falling.